In This Very Life by U Pandita

Author:U Pandita
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780861718801
Publisher: Wisdom Publications

CONCENTRATION: THE SIXTH FACTOR

Concentration is that factor of mind that lands on the object of observation, that pricks into it, penetrates into it, and stays there. The Pāli word for it is samādhi.

Nonagitation

The characteristic of samādhi is nondispersal, nondissipation, nonscatteredness. This means that the mind sticks with the object of observation, sinks into it, and remains still and calm, right there.

Fixed Concentration and Moving Concentration

There are two types of samādhi. One is continuous samādhi, which is the concentration gained while meditating on a single object. This is the type of concentration gained in pure tranquility meditation, where the one requirement is for the mind to stay put on one object to the total exclusion of all other objects. Those who follow the path of continuous concentration are able to experience it especially when they gain absorption into the jhānas.

Vipassanā practice, however, is aimed toward the development of wisdom and the completion of the various stages of insight. Insight, of course, refers to basic intuitive understandings such as the distinction between mind and matter, the intuitive comprehension of their interrelationship by virtue of cause and effect, and the direct perception of the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness of all physical and mental phenomena. These are basic insights, and there are others that one must traverse before attaining the path and fruition consciousness, which have nibbāna, or the cessation of all suffering, as their object.

In vipassanā practice, the field of awareness of objects is crucially important. The field of vipassanā objects are mental and physical phenomena, those things that are directly perceptible without resorting to the thinking process. In other words, as we practice vipassanā we observe many different objects, with the goal of gaining insight into their nature. Momentary concentration, the second type, is most important in vipassanā practice. Vipassanā objects are arising and passing away all the time, and momentary concentration arises in each moment with each object. In spite of its momentary nature, such samādhi can arise from moment to moment without breaks in between. If it does so, momentary concentration shares with continuous concentration the power to tranquilize the mind and keep the kilesas at bay.

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